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Setting
by Josef Cullinane 1702298 Introduction This game is set in a real world location during a historic period, meaning that its setting can be pulled straight from said time period. The specific setting is Chicago during the Era of Prohibition, which ran from 1920 to 1933. While prohibition was a Federally mandated system - meaning it was enacted across the entire USA - the game is set in Chicago due to the strong mafia presence known to exist there at the time, with mob bosses such as Lester “Baby Face” Nelson, John Dillinger and Al “Scarface” Capone setting up much of their operations there, just to name a few of the most famous faces of the time. Exterior aesthetic The city will consist mainly of wide-based, squat red brick or stone buildings with a few examples of early ‘skyscrapers’, which would still be short by modern standards. Cars would consist mainly of Model T and Model A Fords, with Chryslers, Chevrolets, Daimlers, Bentleys and the like thrown in from time to time to add some variety, which isn’t saying much due to cars in that time period looking broadly similar to one another (large ‘tombstone’ style grille, huge detached headlights, usually painted black, etc). As the game progresses, time will pass and the seasons will change, throwing Chicago between sun, heavy rains and strong snowfall. This will serve to not only add variety to a seemingly bland setting, but the seasons could even be used to aid in gameplay (many alcohol smugglers of the time would leave ‘dead drops’ of booze hidden inside snow drifts during the winter) and even as elements of the story (cars of the era had extreme difficulty driving on frozen or slushy roads, meaning alternate means often had to be found to carry out operations). Interior Aesthetic The insides of buildings will change depending on economic status: saloons, normal peoples’ homes and general businesses will feature mainly older furnishings, with much of them being carried over from the previous century - furniture was even more expensive during this time than it is today, so things were built to last as long as possible, meaning much Victorian era furniture remained in homes well into the 1920s and even 30s. Wallpaper will be plain or heavily patterned with little in-between, tables and chairs will be carved from dark wood, as will bureaus, chests of drawers and the like. The most modern part of any home would be electronics such as lights and the radio. Modern elements and the homes of the rich will more likely be in the ‘Art Deco’ style, which was popular at the time. This will mean lots of bold lines and curves, flat blocks of colour and simple but heavily stylised furnishings. The Chrysler Building in New York City is an excellent example of an Art Deco style building. NPC design Mens’ attire will consist of boiler suits, dungarees and denim jeans paired with flat caps or bowler hats for labourers and poorer folk, with the middle and upper class wearing full suits with fedoras or trilbys; this was the fashion at the time. Richer folk, such as the chief of police and Al Capone, would wear fitted pinstripe suits with many accessories, while middle class would likely have plainer fabrics. Womens’ clothing would consist of simple, utilitarian dresses for poorer people, while the middle and upper class will have a much wider variety of attire to choose from; ‘rebellious’ fashion at the time was to wear shorter skirts (short at this time meaning on or below the knee), bold patterns, short hairstyles and bold makeup. Betty Boop, created in 1930, was designed as a rebellious ‘fashionista’ meant to relate to young women with her brightly coloured, short dresses, bright red lips and short stylised hair. Firearms Firearms featured will mainly consist of revolvers for handguns, ranging from small calibre ‘detective specials’ designed to fit in a coat pocket to large calibre ‘bull guns’ made to be as powerful as possible, with a few semi-automatic firearms mixed in, the most prevalent being the Colt 1911. Longer guns will consist mainly of pump action shotguns, the most numerous being the Winchester 1897 ‘Trench Gun’ and submachine guns, the most common of these being the legendary m1921/1928 Thompson, known in pop culture as the ‘Chicago Typewriter’ or ‘Tommy Gun’. All of these elements combined will make for an easily recognisable, extremely memorable setting that can be delivered to players in a fashion which is not only interesting, but historically accurate to boot. RELATED Brief Story Characters Music Progression Mechanics